R&I – TxPAT ***
The Senate voted Wednesday to begin debate on a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill after weeks of negotiating, advancing a critical part of President Joe Biden’s agenda in Congress. The vote was 67-32.
Over half of the bill — $550 billion — is new federal funding. It invests $73 billion to rebuild the electric grid, $66 billion in passenger and freight rail, $65 billion to expand broadband Internet access, $55 billion for water infrastructure, $40 billion to fix bridges, $39 billion to modernize public transit like buses and $7.5 billion to create the first federal network of charging stations for electric vehicles.
The White House claimed that the bill’s investments in various areas of US infrastructure were either the largest ever or in several decades.
“We are proud to announce we have reached a bipartisan agreement on our proposal to make the strongest investment in America’s critical infrastructure in a generation,” said 21 senators from both parties in a statement. “Our plan will create good-paying jobs in communities across our country without raising taxes.”
Martin Sole
Article URL : https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/28/politics/infrastructure-bill-republican-vote/index.html